Royaume d’Italie, 1805–1814

The French Connection

Prior to the Revolutionary et Guerres Napoléoniennes l’Italie consisted of a collection of small states over which the Bourbons of France et les Habsbourgs de l’Autriche had fought for many years. Les Autrichiens gained supremacy avec the end of the Old Regime in France until the young Bonaparte et other généraux français drove les Autrichiens out pendant la campagne d’italie of the late 1790’s. This culminated in the virtual end of influence autrichienne in the area avec the their defeat during the 1805 campaign when they were forced to recognise Napoleon’s claim as King of the newly formed Royaume d’Italie. The Kingdom ultimately consisted of Lombardy, Venetia, Modena, the Papal States, Istria, Dalmatia, Piedmont, Savoy, Genoa, Parma et Tuscany. Napoléon appointed his adopted son Eugene to the position of Viceroy d’Italie to rule in his place.

Le Royaume d’Italie proved a fertile recruiting ground for Napoléon et his ongoing need for soldiers et it is in this capacity that l’Italie proved to be one of Napoleon’s greatest assets. La "liberation" française d’Italie generated much support which was to last throughout the Napoleonic era. Early adherents flocked to the armées françaises en Italie, many coming together to form the light infantry style regiments of Tiralleurs du Po et the Corsican Tirailleurs. There was also l’armée régulière italienne which consisted of both guard et line infantry, cavalry, artillery et support troops. These were all organised as the equivalent unités françaises of the same type.

The battle history of the Royaume d’Italie speaks for itself. Contingents served contre l’Autriche en 1805 et 1809, la Prusse en 1806 et 1807, en Espagne de 1808 until 1812 et made a significant contribution to the failed Campagne de Russie en 1812 where they lost some 25,000 of the 27,000 hommes sent. Remaining loyal to Napoleon’s cause when many others deserted, they raised forces for the Napoleon’s reconstituted army serving en Saxe en 1813, et managed to hold off advances autrichiens into l’Italie until Eugene’s forced abdication in Avril 1814.

It should be noted that in addition to these forces some 7 légère (light infantry), 23 line infantry, 6 dragon, 1 hussard et 9 chasseur à cheval regiments of l’armée française had depots et recruiting posts en Italie. As well as this les vieilles légions polonaises de la République Cisalpine were also transferred au service français ultimately becoming the famous Vistula Legion which provided Napoléon avec troops of the highest calibre who operated in every major theatre of operations during the Guerres Napoléoniennes. The Italians proved to be amongst Napoleon’s most reliable et useful allies et were easily the equal of the troops provided by most of l’états allemands.

1.2. Light Infantry

The light infantry was organised in a similar fashion to the line avec the fusilier companies called chasseurs, et the grenadiers called carabiniers as in the unités légères françaises. The uniform consisted of a dark green légère française style short jacket avec waistcoat et culotte. Le 1r Régiment probably had yellow facings et waistcoat et le 2e Régiment had red facings et a green waistcoat. Ils portaient le shako avec white cords for chasseurs, green for voltigeurs et red for carabiniers who also portaient un bonnet à poil sans plaque.

1.3. Guard Chasseur Velites (Cacciatori Veliti later Carabiniers)

Details of this units uniforms, like many others de l’armée italienne, are somewhat confusing. Ils portaient un uniforme blanc avec light green facings, red cuffs et turnbacks, red fringed green epaulettes, red over green plume et red et green cords on a plateless bonnet à poil. It is possible that a shako may have been worn by some on the march.

Wargaming les Italiens en Espagne

Le contingent italien en Espagne is ideally suited to the collectioniste ou joueur de guerre as the force is not impossibly large et includes a good mix of troop types avec an interesting variety of uniforms. The quality of the troops makes them a viable wargaming force compared to many other allied contingents en Espagne who had high rates of desertion et poor battlefield performance. The line et light infantry can be fielded by painting any of the currently available sets de l’infanterie de ligne française such as Airfix, Revel ou ESCI, in the appropriate colours. The Guard Velites can be fielded using figurines de la Garde impériale. Les chasseurs et dragons might be a bit more difficult, however I have found that les cuirassiers de chez Airfix peuvent être peints pour représenter exactement des dragons. Les chasseurs could be based on the ESCI guard lancers avec minor conversion et appropriate colours. L’artillerie à pied peut être représenter par artillerie de ligne française avec the peak removed. L’artillerie à cheval are probably the most difficult, but a conversion should be possible perhaps again using the Guard Lancer figurines available. Anyone want to have a go at this?

I can highly recommend that any wargamer avec forces françaises field some troupes italiennes as they provide an interesting et useful addition to any army much as they did for Napoléon himself.

Bibliographie

Dempsey, Guy C.: Napoleon’s Soldiers The Grande Armee of 1807 as depicted in the paintings of the Otto Manuscript, Arms et Armour Press, London, 1994. (This contains brilliant original source material in a large number of colour plates at an affordable price. Highly recommended for those interested in uniformes français)